The owner of an oyster farm at Point Reyes National Seashore, battling the Obama administration's attempt to shut down the operation, asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to take up his effort to extend the farm's lease in waters that Congress has designated as a marine wilderness.

In his appeal of a federal court ruling upholding the Interior Department's refusal to renew the lease, Drakes Bay Oyster Co. owner Kevin Lunny described the farm's opponents as "federal agencies ... supported by wilderness extremists who want to rid the area of agricultural and commercial operations."

Drakes Bay operates California's only oyster cannery. Lunny bought the company in 2005, seven years before the scheduled expiration of a 40-year lease in federal waters.

A 1976 law set aside 2,500 acres of offshore land, including the oyster farm, as a wilderness area free of commercial activity once the oyster lease expired.

Lunny, who describes the farm as an environmentally friendly enterprise important to the local economy, has lined up strong support in his campaign to renew the lease. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., steered a bill through Congress in 2009 that authorized the Interior Department to extend the lease for 10 years.

But then-Interior Secretary Ray Salazar denied a renewal in November 2012, saying the oyster harvesting didn't fit Congress' plan for a wilderness area. Most environmental groups have agreed with him, and two federal courts have ruled that the 2009 law left the renewal question up to Salazar and made his "informed decision" immune from judicial review.

The courts have allowed the company to remain open while it appeals the rulings.

In seeking Supreme Court review, attorneys for Drakes Bay argued that the 2009 law did not give the government unlimited authority over the lease, and was actually intended to "extend the lease." They said Salazar had relied on flawed scientific evidence that the oyster farm was harming the marine environment.

"The government's decision will, if implemented, harm local water quality (Drakes Bay's oysters filter the water), the resident workers' families (who would be kicked out of their homes), and California's shellfish consumers," the company's lawyers said. An opponent, Amy Trainer of the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin, said Salazar had acted as "the trustee of America's public lands" and that the court should respect his decision.